Sports News | Lewis Hamilton Behind His Mercedes Successor Antonelli as F1 Testing Begins
Get latest articles and stories on Sports at LatestLY. Lewis Hamilton was fifth-fastest in his first session of preseason testing with Ferrari as his replacement at Mercedes, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, posted the fastest time.
Sakhir (Bahrain), Feb 26 (AP) Lewis Hamilton was fifth-fastest in his first session of preseason testing with Ferrari as his replacement at Mercedes, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, posted the fastest time.
The 18-year-old Italian rookie topped the standings among the 10 drivers on track in Wednesday's morning session, also managing a joint-best 78 laps completed. Liam Lawson was .132 of a second off the pace despite a spin.
Hamilton was .406 down in fifth as he completed 70 laps in the new Ferrari SF-25. Times in testing often don't reflect a driver or car's true pace because of different strategies.
The 40-year-old British driver left Mercedes to join Ferrari this season after spending 12 years and winning six of his seven world titles with the Silver Arrows.
After Hamilton drove out of the garage in the red car No. 44 at the circuit in Bahrain, F1's social media posted the message: “Lewis Hamilton. Ferrari driver” followed by a heart emoji.
Hamilton joined the team last month and will line up in the 2025 season alongside Charles Leclerc, who has been at Ferrari since 2019.
Each team is allowed one car on track at a time during preseason testing. Wednesday's morning session saw Hamilton joined by Liam Lawson, who's partnering champion Max Verstappen at Red Bull this season, McLaren driver Oscar Piastri and two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin.
The afternoon session was suspended because of a power cut affecting the pit garages.
Two factors mean preseason testing could be less useful in predicting the teams' race pace this year.
The weather so far Wednesday has been windy and unusually cool for Bahrain, unlike a typical F1 race weekend.
Bahrain also isn't hosting the opening race of the season, like it did last year. The first race is the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 16. (AP) AM
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)